W.O.W.!!! Wine of the Week #3: Willi Schaefer 2014 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett, Mosel, Germany
Pull out your 64 color Crayola box and search for the magical yellow color – goldenrod! Yes, my friends, this luscious wine is ”pretty good” – or even delicious! Watch W.O.W. Week #3 as I have some fun dissecting this beauty along with a winemaker (Weston Eidson: Montagu and Silver Ghost), a restauranteur (Richard King: Ellerbe Fine Foods), a chef (Tim Prefontaine: Fort Worth Club) and a wine connoisseur (Walter Stucker, founder of Wine for a Cause). Not my traditional W.O.W. format as we spend a majority of our time talking about food pairings for this and the other 3 wines for the upcoming Wine For A Cause event! But it’s a competition – Battle of the Sommeliers – so the stakes are high and the passion is intense!
Willi Schaefer 2014 Graacher Himmelreich
Riesling Kabinett
Mosel, Germany
ABV = 7.5-8%
So what does yellow wine taste like?
Aromas: Traditional petrol, bright citrus, hints of spice and mineral notes.
Flavor: With 20g of residual sugar, this wines acidity provides just the right bright, meyer lemon flavor to balance the sweetness. The minerality brings a slight dryness to the finish and the acidity keeps a smile on your face.
Winemaking: Kabinett is a distinction allocated to German wines of high quality, dry to off-dry and lightness in style. On the Riesling scale of sweetness, this Riesling is in the Spätlese category, meaning in simplest terms, late harvest. This creates a high enough level of sugar the fermentation process cannot translate it all to alcohol resulting in an off-dry wine with noticeable sweetness, not cloying or overbearing, but well balanced with the traditional high acidity Rieslings are known to exhibit.
Riesling is not typically exposed to oak fermentation or aging. Riper pear and apple even mineral notes and the distinct petrol aroma result from the fermentation process instead. Aged for 8 years in bottle, this particular wine has tertiary, or aging, flavors such as honey and spice. The deep yellow, or goldenrod color is symbolic of extended time in the bottle. This wine takes full advantage of traditional Riesling fruit flavors and just keeps getting better with age.
Price point: mid-30s
Whether you can find this particular Riesling or another Mosel Kabinette Spätlese Riesling, TRY IT. NOW! If you’re a hater of sweet wines, especially Rieslings, I cannot encourage you enough to give this style another try! No wine varietal loves food more than Riesling and I’m confident W.O.W. Week #3 gives you numerous amazing pairings to try! Enjoy!
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